Galatians 6:3 If anyone thinks he is important when he really is not, he is only fooling himself. 4 Each person should judge his own actions and not compare himself with others. Then he can be proud for what he himself has done. 5 Each person must be responsible for himself.

A while back I wrote that grace seems to be a recurrent theme in my life these days. I guess I should add mercy to the list. My pastor is currently doing a series on "The End" and this past Sunday he made me think about how Christ died on the cross for me so that I do not have to meet a sad end. Instead I get to meet my Jesus in heaven and be with Him for eternity. It might seem silly, but every time I think of that sacrifice tears still come to my eyes. I am grateful for the mercy and grace of Jesus.

I am also grateful for His desire to send me a Helper, to dwell within me. I believe it is this Helper, the Holy Spirit, that is able to give me the eyes to see people as Jesus does, with grace and mercy. And yes, I know how imperfect I am and that I fall off the wagon more than I would even like to admit. That being said, reading Galatians this morning reminded me yet again... I am undeserving of the grace and mercy of Jesus, and yet He offered Himself on the cross willingly anyhow. I am not that important in the grand scheme of things, but to Jesus, He would have come for me if I was the only one to come for. Talk about love.

This leads into the next part of the scripture. Now that I know Jesus on the inside, I should be demonstrating His love on the outside. I have the choice... This scripture, about judging my own actions, reminds me that I should be loving others no matter what their lives are like or what they have done to me. The only person I should be judging is myself. And I do not even mean harshly, but just taking a real look into my life and heart and seeing where I need to change my own self. I have got to let Jesus work on others. It is my job to offer them grace and mercy, not to change them or make them into the person I think they need to be, although there is a caveat to this for the believer.

I am responsible for me, and only for me. In heaven, I will be answering for how I loved others while I lived, not how I felt about how they treated me. I will have to tell God that in the hard spots I was able to control myself and be kind despite my desire to do the opposite. I want to be able to tell God that I offered grace and mercy to those in my life so that they might get a glimpse of Jesus in me and want to know Him. Building the kingdom of heaven... we are all able to take part in that.